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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262025">Yours, Wu</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginevraknifehands/pseuds/ginevraknifehands'>ginevraknifehands</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/spudbud/pseuds/spudbud'>spudbud</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, sad boys, wuko week 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:27:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,175</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262025</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginevraknifehands/pseuds/ginevraknifehands, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spudbud/pseuds/spudbud</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako and Wu break up when Wu goes off to Ba Sing Se <strike>for college</strike> to be the King of the Earth kingdom.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Korra/Asami Sato, Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>280</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>wuko fics for the soul <3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Yours, Wu</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>IE: "Mako, you know I love you, but I can't just let democracy die" - Wu, Ruins of the Empire book 1</p>
<p>Happy Wuko Week! We didn't edit it, so please excuse anything off about it.</p>
<p>This is for Wuko Week day 2: angst.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mako had thought that going out to get noodles with everybody would take his mind off of things. Bolin’s back in town for good and Asami has a night off, and Korra finally managed to drag herself away from stabilizing the spirit portal and fixing the city for long enough to come out with them, too.</p>
<p>Throwing himself into his work wasn’t doing anything, so Mako figured: a change of pace. His friends, the other people that he—the people he loves. That will get him to stop wondering whether Wu is settling into the gigantic palace, whether he’s found a new bodyguard yet, if anyone will take him seriously as he sets about reshaping his kingdom for the better.</p>
<p>Clearly, noodles aren’t working.</p>
<p>Mako snaps back to the present only because Bolin is waving a hand in his face, close enough to brush his nose, with a frown. “Mako! If you’re not gonna eat those—” Bolin’s already tugging Mako’s noodles closer to himself.</p>
<p>“Oh,” Mako hadn’t even realized. He blinks, watches them slide away, and shakes his head. “Yeah, fine. Eat them. I’m not that hungry.”</p>
<p>“Are you okay, Mako?” Asami asks him, “you barely ate anything.”</p>
<p>“Maybe being back on the beat is too easy,” Korra teases, flashing him a grin, “gotta get your old babysitting job back.”</p>
<p>“I don’t,” Mako snaps, too-sharp. He feels bad about it immediately: Korra’s eyes go wide, and she frowns at him. “…sorry. It’s fine. I’m fine.”</p>
<p>“You’re not fine,” Asami says, leaning over to put a hand gently on his arm. “What’s wrong? You can tell us.”</p>
<p>He wants to, is the thing. He’s been trying to for weeks, but it’s all too big, and every time Mako thinks he’s come up with the right words to tell them everything, they die in his throat. Besides: Wu doesn’t need the scandal right now. What he’s doing is unpopular enough without some story about him and Mako floating around making his life more complicated.</p>
<p>“I think,” Bolin says around a mouthful of noodles, “he misses Wu. Right, Mako? I mean, you spent two years with the guy and then, poof, he’s in Ba Sing Se doing king stuff!”</p>
<p>Mako’s throat goes tight. “Work’s just been,” not enough. Hard. “A lot. It’s fine, I’ll eat later.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay to miss him,” Asami says with a small smile. She drops her hand, sitting back in her chair. </p>
<p>“Yeah, bro,” Bolin agrees, nudging him in the side, “you can miss the guy! He wasn’t so bad, in the end.”</p>
<p>“No, and what he’s doing now is actually pretty admirable,” Korra admits.</p>
<p>Mako suddenly finds it very hard to swallow his sake. It’s like they’re all staring at him, like he’s transparent and shouting at all of them that they broke up and could they please talk about anything else because as much as Mako still thinks it was the right thing to do, that there was no way he could live in Republic City and still date Wu, it hurts like hell to think about him in that palace all alone.</p>
<p>But he can’t say any of that. Because none of them know that he and Wu had a thing in the first place. It was over too soon to tell them. Doomed from the start, maybe: Wu was always going to be the Earth King.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he finally manages, tight and short.</p>
<p>He’s never been more grateful to perceptive, careful Asami for steering the subject into their Spirit World vacation.</p>
<p>They leave him alone until the end of dinner, talking and laughing. Korra even manages to drag him into the conversation about the effort to rebuild the city.</p>
<p>When they leave the table, Asami pulls him aside. “You know you can tell me anything, Mako. If you need to talk, I’m here for you.”</p>
<p>Mako swallows hard. There is no way he can ask his ex-girlfriend to talk to him about his current, secret ex-boyfriend.</p>
<p>“Thanks,” He says weakly. He can’t meet her eyes. “I know. That means a lot. To me. Uh,” her stare has always pinned him in place a little bit. “I just… remembered about some work. Stuff. That I forgot to do. I should get to that.”</p>
<p>“Mako,” she frowns, but then sighs, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “Okay. I’m here when you’re ready.”</p>
<p>Somehow, Mako doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>A week later, Mako gets the first letter:</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Mako,</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I know I probably shouldn’t be writing to you. </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I also probably shouldn’t tell you that I miss you. But I do. I miss you so much, Mako. It’s been so difficult to go from seeing you every single day, or not at all. </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I hope your arm is okay. Can you use it? Can you bend again? Did Chief Beifong let you back on the force? I suppose if your arm isn’t okay, it might be hard to write back. If you don’t write me back, I’ll assume that your arm is still broken, and not that you don’t want to talk to me.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I hope that we can still be friends. I don’t know what my life can be like without you in it. So far: I hate it. I hate being without you. I hate not getting to talk with you, to not hear your thoughts, to not get to joke about people’s terrible fashion choices with you.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I miss your advice. I miss that you called me on things. Everyone in the palace is being so accommodating, but I can tell they hate what I’m doing, but no one tells me that! Everyone says “yes, your majesty” and “of course, your grace”. I haven’t heard my own name in weeks!</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I have to run to a meeting now, but know that I’m thinking about you. I miss you. I wish things could be different.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I hope you miss me too.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Yours,</em>
    <br/>
    <em>Wu</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>Mako folds it back up as soon as he reads it, lets his head thunk into the desk that Bolin helped him drag in off the curb, and stays there for about five minutes before he goes to make himself a complex and elaborate dinner.</p>
<p>He brings the leftovers to Korra and Asami just to have someone to talk to, and gets Korra talking about the spirit world so he doesn’t have to think about the letter. Asami gives him a knowing look but doesn’t press it, and Mako is grateful for that, at least.</p>
<p>Yours, he signs it. Like he's still Mako's anything, and not just Mako's... ex. Friend. Former employer. The word sticks and sticks in his head, showing up at random moments: when he's filling out paperwork, when he's downing his morning coffee made the way he likes it, but not by Wu, who learned how Mako likes his coffee and started making it for him.</p>
<p>Work is enough—with the Creeping Crystals and Tokuga and the chaos of Bolin suddenly being his partner—that Mako writes Wu back a full week later. It takes him a while because his arm isn’t working well, still, but he manages.</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Wu,</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>It’s weird that you’re not here. I keep expecting you to be. And making too much food.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>The weather has been nice. It’s getting cold already.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>If you really do want advice: get some advisors who will tell you what they really think. It doesn’t help you to be surrounded by yes-men all the time. </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>My arm is getting better. I can feel my chi again, at least. Kya says it’ll heal. That’s all I know.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Read this part out loud:</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Wu. Wu Wu Wu Wu Wu.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>That should be good for a few weeks, at least.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I miss you too.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>-Mako</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>He gets another letter just a few days later.</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Mako,</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>That did help! See? This is why I need you around. I love that advice about advisors. I’m going to start interviews next week.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>And I may have read the entire letter aloud and pretended you were here. It helped. </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I’m so glad you can bend again. I know that that would bother you forever if you couldn’t. But you’re still a great detective if you can’t bend. Beifong is lucky to have you.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I’ve managed to set up the first elections here, in Gaoling. They’ll be in two months. I really hope it goes well. I think it will. I hope that the people take it as a chance to step up and have a say in their own future.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Will you vote for Zhu Li? I think she’ll be a great president. If I could, I would vote for her. Don’t tell Raiko, though. If he wins, I’ll still have to work to with him.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I’m glad you miss me too. That helps. I was worried it was just me.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I miss you so much.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Yours,</em>
    <br/>
    <em>Wu</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>Wu really has nothing to worry about. Mako misses him like a limb, and he kind of knows what it’s like to miss a limb now.</p>
<p>It’s hard to write him back in the chaos of trying to save Asami. Mako feels terrible for the fact that he’s glad for the distraction. Wu’s words keep echoing in his head when he’s alone in his apartment: that Wu misses him. That he hasn’t heard his own name in weeks, how hard he’s trying to make this work. </p>
<p>Mako is so proud of him, is the thing. </p>
<p>He’s really trying to make this work. He’s trying everything he can to do something he was unprepared for, that he told Mako before he left that he was terrified of messing up. </p>
<p>It kind of hurts how proud Mako is. He has to get over this.</p>
<p>He writes back after Zhu Li wins the election, when things finally calm down.</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Wu,</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I voted for Zhu Li. I’m sure you heard about Korra. And Asami, and everything that happened. Asami is okay. I know you’re probably worried.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Maybe Zhu Li won’t be so terrible to work with. She’s terrifyingly competent. Like Beifong.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>How’s the preparation for the election going? Have you hired anyone under 80 years old yet? You really should. More advice, I guess.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>It’s hard. That you’re not here. But you’re already doing the right thing. Just keep doing it.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>-Mako</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>Once again, he hears back from Wu almost immediately, at least in the time it takes for mail to travel between Republic City and Ba Sing Se and back:</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Mako,</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I did hear and I’m so glad that Asami is okay! You and Korra must have been so scared. </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>The election is happening. That’s really all I can say about it. And I did hire some new people! They aren’t young, but they aren’t over 80. Maybe chic 50s, their silver is coming in. But they’re on my side, and believe in the democratic republics I’m trying to create.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I’m grateful for President Moon. I’ll be coming to the city soon to officially meet her, as the President.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>I don’t want to put you in an awkward position, but I want to see you. Will you have dinner with me?</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Thank you for believing in me. I miss you.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Yours,</em>
    <br/>
    <em>Wu</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p><em>Yours</em>, he says, and asks if Mako wants to come to dinner. </p>
<p>Mako tries three times to write a letter back. He crumples up all three attempts, all with different answers, sits on it for a day, and still doesn't come up with anything. Wu's coming back in a week.</p>
<p>He needs to talk to Asami.</p>
<p>Mako needs to talk to her and Korra anyway, because he didn’t react that well when he found out they were dating and he feels bad about that. But mostly because he wants to go to dinner with Wu, and that seems like a terrible idea.</p>
<p>“Wu’s coming. To Republic City,” he tells Asami as soon as she picks up the telephone.</p>
<p>“Oh. That’s good,” she says with surprise clear in her voice. “Are you okay with that?”</p>
<p>“No," Mako says, and then, "Yes?” He huffs at himself, pressing the receiver hard against his own ear. “He invited me to dinner.”</p>
<p>“Right." Asami pauses, and Mako can see her face, her brows drawn together while she tries to figure out how to word whatever she's about to say. Mako's skin and clothes are too tight. Maybe he doesn't need to talk to Asami. He's an adult, he can figure out what to do. "Mako, do you want to come over?”</p>
<p>Mako sucks in a small breath. “Yeah. Yes. I do.”</p>
<p>Which is how he ends up at Asami and Korra’s place, because Korra and Asami have a place now and fill it up perfectly, and are both looking at him like he might turn around and leave again.</p>
<p>Mako groans and shoves a hand into his hair. “I know I was weird. Last time we talked. I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Asami says. Her hand is tangled with Korra’s. Mako tries not to think about Wu curling their hands together with a secret smile while he tugged Mako through the city. His hands were always a little cold, probably because he's so skinny, and he'd whine about it and ask Mako to warm him up.</p>
<p>“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Korra smiles at him, small and true, “it’s a weird time.”</p>
<p>They’re so understanding. Mako is, abruptly, so glad that they’re back in his life, that he didn’t ruin things forever with these two people who mean so much to him. He toes off his shoes and lets himself be led over to their couch, glancing around at the apartment. It's nice: big, with windows that overlook the bright skyline and the portal shining yellow-green in the not-so-far distance. Some of Asami's sketches and designs for machines are framed and stuck to the wall, along with a really nice drawing of Korra with Tenzin's four kids signed by Meelo. </p>
<p>He sucks in a tiny breath as he sinks onto the couch. “Wu’s coming. He wants me to go to dinner with him.”</p>
<p>“So?” Korra frowns at him as she flops into an armchair. Asami sits in the one next to Korra, her eyes on Mako. “I thought you liked him now.”</p>
<p>“Korra,” Asami shakes her head.</p>
<p>“What?” Korra glances between them. Asami just nods her head at Mako, like that means something. Mako doesn't blame Korra for her confused look. He feels like he's been turned inside-out, or something. He has to stop himself from making small, nervous flames with his fingers, a habit he broke a long time ago.</p>
<p>They're still staring at him. The silence is thick, and Mako's heart pounds.</p>
<p>“We,” He sucks in a breath, and meets Korra’s eyes, “we broke up. Right before Wu went back to Ba Sing Se.”</p>
<p>Korra’s brows shoot up. “You? And Wu? If you broke up,” her eyes are wide.</p>
<p>“Why did you break up?” Asami asks softly, before Korra can follow that thought anymore, and before Mako can work out how to melt into the couch cushions. </p>
<p>The question catches at his breath.</p>
<p>Because the thing is: he's thought about it so many times in the last few months. Every time he turns around to read Wu something from the paper only to be greeted with empty space, every time he accidentally makes two cups of tea out of habit alone and then lets one go cold, because Wu isn't there to drink it. Every time he sees someone lean in on the street to press a kiss to someone's lips, Mako thinks: <em>Why did we break up?</em></p>
<p>The answer, long-rehearsed until it was worn into Mako's head, is heavy on his tongue. “He’s the Earth King. He lives in Ba Sing Se, and even if this election goes well—it wouldn’t work.”</p>
<p>“Why?” Korra frowns. “That’s dumb.”</p>
<p>“No, it’s not,” Mako says sharply, with his heart in his throat, trying to ignore the burst of feeling in his belly. He's failing, by the way Asami and Korra are looking at him. There's so much more to the story that they don't know, that Mako can't find the words to tell them. It isn't just his story, anyway, he's only half of it and the other half isn't here and Mako was pretty sure that was for the best until <em>yours.</em> “I just need to know if it’s a bad idea to get dinner with him.”</p>
<p>“I think," Asami's voice is measured, "it depends on what you want. Do you still want to be with him?”</p>
<p>Mako opens his mouth to respond, and closes it again without saying anything. </p>
<p>“Hold on,” Korra’s still staring. “So you. And Wu. Were a thing?”</p>
<p>Mako barely resists the urge to shove his face into his hand. His entire body is too-hot. On the verge of flames. He sucks in one breath, and then another, and then says, as evenly as he can, “Yeah. For a while.”</p>
<p>“How long?” Korra is leaning in now, far too intent, too close. Mako leans back instinctively.</p>
<p>“Korra,” Asami says again, tugging her back. “Give him some space.”</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Mako mutters, even though it’s very much not. He wants to push himself up off the couch and stop answering all these questions, except it was his idea to come here in the first place, and this is Korra and Asami, sitting with their knees together like they belong that way. Making it work, despite all the odds against them. “Almost a year.”</p>
<p>Korra makes a tiny, scandalized noise in her throat. “And you never told us?!” She reaches for him, but Asami pulls her back.</p>
<p>“Korra, come on,” she sighs sharply, and Korra shoots her a look that she clearly ignores. Mako is half-ready to just stand up and leave when she says, “Well, Mako? Do you want to see him again?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know!” He snaps, too loud in the giant apartment. It’s bigger than his, which makes sense: Asami has the money, and there are two of them living here. Together. “We—" the words stick, again, but Mako forces his way through, "we broke up for a reason. It seemed like the right choice.”</p>
<p>“But you’re not happy about it,” Asami points out.</p>
<p>Korra huffs and looks away. “I think that’s dumb, Mako. If you like the guy, and he likes you, why not try to make it work? You dated me! I’m the Avatar! How is a King harder than that?”</p>
<p>“You were in the city,” Mako says dully, like he's said to himself a hundred times. Every time he sees someone in a ridiculous outfit and thinks he has to tell Wu about it, except that he can't. Wu is like a spirit in his life, hanging around, clinging to things Mako didn't know he was twined into. “It wasn’t an easy choice, okay?”</p>
<p>It was a terrible one, actually. Wu was a mess about it, when they’d talked at the wedding. </p>
<p>Mako was too, but he’d shoved all his feelings down, because he thought it was for the best. That it was mutual, and what they both wanted, and then Wu opened up a door with his letters that Mako thought was closed for good, and he kind of hates how much he wants what Korra is saying to be true.</p>
<p>“What, so a couple hours on a train is holding you back?” Korra narrows her eyes at him. “If that’s the problem, then you shouldn’t see him.”</p>
<p>“She has a point,” Asami says thoughtfully, “it depends on why you broke up. If it’s distance, I have to agree with Korra. That seems like a small issue, when you have means.”</p>
<p>“I'm not used to having means,” Mako points out, meeting Asami’s eyes. “It wasn't—it was. The distance. Him being the Earth King, and none of that is the point here,” because Mako is tired of rehashing his own decisions, and wondering if he made the right ones. He’s wondered that enough in the last few months on his own. “The point is: is going to dinner with him a good idea?”</p>
<p>“Yes!” Korra cries out, waving her arm at him. “Yes, Mako. Go to dinner with the guy.”</p>
<p>Asami laughs and leans over to kiss Korra’s cheek. “Again, I have to agree. If you want to, why not?”</p>
<p>Mako snorts at Korra’s triumphant noise and her smug grin, and is once again grateful to Asami when she changes the subject. He lets himself be yanked into a hug, even, pressed into the familiar fold of Korra and Asami's arms while Korra huffs about Mako keeping things from her.</p>
<p>"Think of it this way," she says when she pulls away, and Mako feels slightly more whole. "If you go to dinner and find out you're broken up for good, now we can make you feel better!"</p>
<p>"Sure," Mako says, and manages a smile.</p>
<p>His letter back to Wu is one of the harder things he’s ever written, and it’s only a sentence:</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Wu,</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Let’s go to dinner.</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>-Mako</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>He’s probably going to regret that.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>In retrospect: Mako should have specified a restaurant. </p>
<p>They are, somehow, at the exact same table in the exact same place that Mako had his first date with Asami, with the lights low. Wu looks gorgeous, and Mako can’t stop staring, cataloguing the things that have changed. He has a list:</p>
<p>Wu’s hair is longer. He looks more stressed. He doesn’t look like he’s been sleeping well. The sun-freckles over his nose and cheeks have faded. </p>
<p>He’s staring at Mako with a tiny smile plastered onto his face and they’ve been talking about work for the last half an hour, and Mako’s words are tangled on his own tongue. Wu’s hands are carefully in his own space, but Mako’s seen them twitch toward him a few times. At least, he thinks he saw that. Wu hasn’t touched him. He even bowed to Mako when he saw him, just a short little bow, but it was still weird. Strange. Wu laughs too loud and grips his chopsticks too tightly, and eats too little. </p>
<p>“So, Mako,” Wu saying his name cuts through his thoughts, “thinking of doing that pro-bending charity match? I heard all about it. Might donate something to it, too.”</p>
<p>“Uh,” Mako had been thinking about it, in fact. “I mean. We won the last one. It’s up to Korra.”</p>
<p>When it was just the two of them, Mako knew how to talk to Wu. It took him a while to learn, but he got there. Even writing letters to him was surprisingly easy. </p>
<p>Talking to him now, though, is a lot harder than it should be, and Mako has the sinking feeling it’s because he keeps getting distracted by Wu’s lips on the edge of his glass or the press of his fingers against his chopsticks. Ridiculous stuff like that. Mako should be paying attention.</p>
<p>But his own heart is in his ears and he just keeps thinking, over and over: what if? </p>
<p>When dinner is taken away, Wu says no to dessert. That in and of itself should have told Mako something. Wu doesn’t quite look at him when he says, “hey, Mako?”</p>
<p>Mako presses his fingers into his own palm and says, a little short, “We’re in public, Wu.”</p>
<p>Wu’s eyes flick up to Mako’s. He’s frowning. “What? Oh. You want to have this conversation in private. We can do that.” He waves the server over for the check.</p>
<p>“Where are you staying? The Four Elements isn’t open yet, is it?” Mako asks as they walk out. Wu’s bodyguards—two of them, both hulking people with far more intimidating auras than Mako ever had—fall neatly into step behind them. Their presence prickles at the back of Mako’s neck.</p>
<p>“Oh. Yeah, they’re still renovating. President Moon hooked me up with an apartment near city hall,” Wu flashes him a smile, but it isn’t a real smile. Mako knows what those look like, and this one is fake and strained. “Do you want to go there? Or your place? Or,” he glances around, shaking his head. “I got nothing.”</p>
<p>“My place,” Mako says without thinking about it, and then glances away as Wu’s eyes widen. “It’s close. And. You haven’t seen it. You can keep your opinions about the decor to yourself.” He knows, even as he says it, that Wu will not. And that Mako doesn’t want him to.</p>
<p>“Okay. I’d like that,” the smile softens and Mako thinks this one is real.</p>
<p>Wu’s bodyguards wait outside Mako’s door after making sure his apartment is secure. It’s odd, having these strangers do his old job, and do it much more thoroughly than he ever did. Wu sits on the couch as they search, idly smoothing down his suit.</p>
<p>“It’s nice,” Wu comments, looking around. “A little bare, but I didn’t really expect much else from you.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know how to take that,” Mako says, his heart in his throat. “Your new bodyguards actually know how to do their jobs.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Wu agrees, his eyes falling on Mako, “but they’re not nearly as good company as you were.”</p>
<p>Mako sits, sudden and heavy and a little too close to Wu. “Wu, I can’t—what did you want to say? Back at the restaurant.”</p>
<p>Wu sucks in a breath. His body is too still. “Right. That. I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>That was not at all what Mako expected. He stares for a second, waiting for Wu to say more, but he doesn’t. “For… what?”</p>
<p>“For asking you to come to dinner. I just wanted to see you, but,” Wu glances up at his face. His own is sincere and a little sad, his hands balled in his lap. “I didn’t mean for it to be so… awkward. I should have just done what we agreed and made it a clean break, but I still like you, and I wanted to see you and I went and did the selfish thing again, so I’m sorry. I don’t ever want to make you uncomfortable because of my own selfishness again.”</p>
<p>“You weren’t—” Mako says, too-quick, his heart beating. “I. Had to ask Korra and Asami. If I should go.”</p>
<p>Wu stares at him with a small frown. “I don’t… why?”</p>
<p>Mako’s jaw works for a moment. “Because. I thought it was a terrible idea. But I wanted to see you anyway. You… wrote me.”</p>
<p>“I did,” Wu says slowly.</p>
<p>“And I shouldn’t have written back,” Mako meets his eyes. “But I did.”</p>
<p>“This is either going a very different direction than I thought it was, or you’re just rehashing the last few months for fun,” Wu blurts out too quickly. “Mako, what are you saying?”</p>
<p>Mako groans. At himself, mostly, for being useless at this, and at Wu for not wanting to pick up what Mako is saying, even though Mako’s being ridiculously unclear and he knows that. His heart is too loud in his own ears. “I don’t think we made the right call. About us.”</p>
<p>Wu makes a noise in his throat, something like a sob or a cry, and then he’s surging toward Mako, arms around his shoulders. He stops just short of kissing him, eyes wide and staring into Mako’s. “No,” he breathes, “we didn’t.”</p>
<p>“Korra said—” Mako’s voice goes strangely tight, sticking in his throat, and he swallows and pushes a hand into Wu’s hair, messing up the perfect styling that probably took him hours. “It’s a few hours. On a train. We can handle that.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Wu agrees, a smile cresting on his lips, “yeah, we can handle that.” His eyes flick over Mako’s face, “good. This is good. Because I love you, Mako. I tried to get myself to stop being in love with you and I couldn’t do it. I think it’s because I don’t want to not be in love with you.”</p>
<p>Mako yanks him into a hard kiss.</p>
<p>Wu’s only half on his lap and it unbalances them both, and Mako has to throw out a hand to keep himself upright, but the other hand is in Wu’s hair and Wu is wrapped around him warm and familiar and Mako missed him more than he ever thought he would.</p>
<p>Wu pulls back, his eyes wide, “your arm!” He looks frantically at the arm braced on the couch, “Mako! You’re supposed to be careful.”</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Mako breathes, smiling as he pushes another kiss to the corner of Wu’s mouth. “It’s getting better, don’t worry about it.”</p>
<p>“I’m very worried about it,” Wu breathes, and presses a searing kiss to Mako’s lips.</p>
<p>It’s only later, after Wu popped his head out the door to dismiss one of his bodyguards and invite in the one who’s working overnight, does Wu murmur, tangled in Mako’s arms, “we can make this work.”</p>
<p>Mako pushes his hand back into Wu’s hair, pressing his head as close as Mako can get him. Wu can probably feel the too-fast beat of his heart, hammering into his ribs, but Mako can’t even make himself care. “I… missed you. So much. I just don’t want to be some liability for you. The media’s terrible to you already.”</p>
<p>“More of a liability without you,” Wu counters, nosing against his throat, “missing you that much, made me bad at my job.”</p>
<p>Mako snorts despite himself, his lips brushing Wu’s temple. “That’s why you wrote, huh? Had to be good at your job again?”</p>
<p>“Had to do something,” Wu pushes himself up to look at Mako, “I spent too much time thinking about you. I thought writing would get it out. But it just made it worse.”</p>
<p>“Made it worse for me, too,” Mako mumbles. It’s hard to look away from him like this, with his hair falling soft over his cheeks and his eyes bright in the dim light. “But I wasn’t doing great. Before. And I… wanted to tell you. How proud I am. What amazing things you’re doing. It didn’t seem like enough to write it.”</p>
<p>The smile that blooms across Wu’s lips is beautiful. Mako can see it even in the dark room, with only the shine from the streetlights outside. “Yeah? That means a lot, Mako. I really, I want to do those things with you.”</p>
<p>“You might regret that,” Mako says, with his own heart in his throat. </p>
<p>“I won’t,” Wu says in a voice Mako hasn’t really heard before. It’s a voice that’s sure and strong and confident. It isn’t Wu’s press-voice that he puts on when he’s trying impress somebody, and it’s not his normal voice, that he uses when he’s just talking with Mako. This is something new, something different. Something a leader would use.</p>
<p>“Wu,” Mako says, barely above a breath, his eyes locked on Wu’s face.</p>
<p>“Yeah, Mako?” Wu smiles at him, his fingers trailing down Mako’s cheek.</p>
<p>Mako leans up, just enough to push his lips against Wu’s skin. “I love you, too.”</p>
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